Each participant chose 3 of their top strengths from among 100 brightly colored cards displayed on the table, then told about an occasion in their life when they used their three strengths to solve a problem, address a challenge — or just have a great time!

For example, one woman told how she lodged a formal complaint about a poster that had been installed in her classroom by the previous teacher, listing “Great South Africans” but not including any that were not White, after being told that she was prohibited from augmenting the poster with any non-White names. “I used my strengths of Fair, Risk-Taking, and Persistent,” she related. She was sacked — but it was early in her career, and she felt it taught her how to protect herself in the future when she faced similar situations — which she did!

In conclusion, all the cards were posted on a Group Brain, thus displaying visually, how the diverse neuro-strengths of the participants around the table, could work synergistically. A brief video showed how this works in practice in a major corporation.

“This is the first time I’ve really understood how my particular way of using my brain, can best mesh with others’, to produce beneficial results rather than conflict,” said another participant.

Enhancing discussion was the display of books from the library’s collection:

* Image: Russian Dolls, by Bart Everets, on Fickr. Note: Matryoshkas or nesting dolls are a design paradigm representing the relationship of objects within similar objects with many different themes and styles, including political leaders, folk, religion, nature, animals, and more.